Send in the Clowns

Can I Save the Cerulean?

I'm finally going through all the old tubes of watercolors I've collected over the years, including many inherited from my mother, and seeing what I have and what condition it's in. The chemical data sheets for cerulean state that it ' tends to granulate or become chalky in watercolors' and indeed what's in the tube is not the usual sticky mass of dried paint but rather a crumbly powder. It is a fabulous color, and a tube runs about $12 so I'm trying to figure out if I can reconstitute it. I used it here for the 'sky' but it did not apply evenly nor in a proper watercolory manner.

Cap of Blue Hair

If Nothing Else is Cooking, There's Always Blind Contour

Right-handed this time...

Tennessee Valley Beach

My friend, painter Anne Longo, and I hiked through Tennessee Valley and sat on the beach painting. I can't remember the last time I tried to paint 'en plein air' but it was easier to deal with now that I've had so much more experience with watercolors. I put myself in at the far end of the cove in my red hat and pants but I decided to leave out the dead beached seal.

Ow, I Banged My Head!

But it's not as bad as I made it look!

Also, since I've complained so often I'd also like to give credit where it's due. They swapped around rooms next door so that we wouldn't hear Rawlston Masoniai's music as much, and when I called him this evening because it was still vibrating in the rooms nearest their house, he did immediately turn it down. So thank-you to Rawlston, we really appreciate it!

Spare Hands

Playing with Shadows on the Studio Floor

On the Aiki

...for Guy Steven's 40th birthday party. The Aiki is Guy's boat - I was amused to note that the colors of paint chips used included regatta, speedboat, catamaran and victory. I wasn't looking at the names when I chose colors - I see in retrospect that I actually rejected kayak. And can you guess which of those colors are purples and which are yellows?

Urgent Rooter and Tiki Heads

We were so pleased with the job Urgent Rooter did for our clogged plumbing last month, that I asked to pose with their equipment so I could do a portrait - it's just taken me a few weeks to get to it. And yes, there really are giant Tiki heads across the street.

Let Your Fingers do the Walking

Peace

In the immortal words of John Lennon, 'You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one...'

Ralph Lauren Power

Another entry in my bad High School poster art series (the other one was my illustration of getting vaccinations before my trip to Thailand last year.) In any event, it sure looks political, but my only intentions were form and color and continuing to play with my 10+ years of collected paint chips.

More iPod Touch Squiggles Fun

We take a break from this week's previously scheduled paper cuts, to bring you more silliness curtesy of the Squiggles program on my iPod Touch. This was based on my 2007.04.10 self-portrait, with overlays, tinting and distortion curtesy of Squiggles.

Hand of Many Colors

Plaid Green Hand

Ralph Lauren

Makes the very best paint chips.

Driving My Car

This weekend I made separate trips south to Los Gatos, east to Albany and north to Santa Rosa, making my unfortunate contribution to global warming.

Papercut of "I Think It's Level"

At today's demo of kirigami for the Los Gatos Art Association, I demonstrated cannabalizing your own imagery for papercuts by making this piece based on my collage 'I Think It's Level'.

Kirigami!

Tomorrow I'm giving a kirigami paper cut demonstration to the Los Gatos Art Association, so this evening I made two kirigami paper cuts of my hands holding scissors. As you can see, they look pretty similar when folded up, but quite different unfolded.

Black Dog, Green Garden, Red Pants

Oba & I in the Garden

Guess I'm on a dog kick!

Marble in Color

Marble Came to Visit us In Inverness

She brought our friends Bruce & Gillian with her.

Ocean Beach

Landscape is not my natural subject but it's always an inspiration. A week or so back printmaker Ruth Paesch and I bailed on waiting for the museum to regain power so we could see the Frida Kahlo show, and headed out to the beach instead.

Asleep in a Heap

Not Topical

Maybe tomorrow...

I Have Lots of Ideas

I have lots of ideas for more interesting portraits but with these long, busy days and short, underslept nights, it's hard to find the energy to execute them.

Rawlston Masaniai Was at it Again

Last week on Wednesday, this week on Tuesday - he woke both of us with thumping music at 3AM. Has he no mercy? We've spoken to him, we've sent him letters, today we spoke to him on the phone. He always promises it won't happen again, but guess what... he doesn't keep his word.

Big Plumbing Emergency

It's not just a metaphor - shoveling sh!t really is unpleasant!

Kewpie or Cyclops?

Big Schnozz & Secret Smile

Wooly Julia

The latest little ap we've downloaded to my iPod touch is Wooly Willy, which allows you to draw 'magnetic shaving' mustaches and other hair on either the traditional Wooly Willy image or any image of your own. Here Ann and I have collaborated in giving a previous portrait some additional facial hair. The truth is my eyebrows are a little wild and getting wilder as I get older - so this may not be so far from some future truth. As Picasso famously replied when told Gertrude Stein did not look like his portrait of her "She will...".

This image also seems apropos of printmaker printmaker Ruth Paesch & my attempt to see the Frida Kahlo show at SFMoMA today... I can't say I was directly influenced by the show, however, because the museum was having a power outage and we went to Ocean Beach instead.

Ann says as long as I'm mentioning such fabulous women as Ruth, Gertrude and Frida, let's not forget Patti Smith.

OK, bed time...

Too Tired To Draw (But I did Anyway)

Not surprisingly, I'm still tired from being woken up periodically Wednesday night by our neighbor Rawlston Masaniai (Masaniani) of the San Francisco Seals, Unlike Rawlston, I don't get to sleep all day the next day.

Early Night Cap

I'm tired after a day with three meetings following a night of our neighbor Rawlston Masaniai (Masaniani) of the San Francisco Seals waking us up periodically with his booming loud party music. So I've got my night cap on early and I'm heading to bed - so far it's quiet over there tonight though one never knows when he's going to come home and crank up the volume.